


Born Again

by notjustmom



Series: IronStrange Bingo [13]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: M/M, Past Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-04-12
Packaged: 2020-01-12 04:29:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18439058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notjustmom/pseuds/notjustmom
Summary: Ironstrange Bingo Prompt: Rebirth





	Born Again

There were a few times when Tony felt he had been reborn in his life. Not in a religious way, because he wasn't religious by any stretch of anyone's imagination, but as if he had been actually brought back to life in the same body, but with a slightly different brain, still mostly him, with a new understanding, or something, whatever.

The first time, he had been a kid, maybe 7? No, he had been 8, right before he had been shipped off to boarding school, and he had climbed out his window and tried to shimmy down the ancient apple tree that had always been strong enough before, before that night, but he had slipped or a branch had snapped, and he woke up to find that he had broken his collarbone. It could have been worse, the doctors had told his mother. His father hadn't even bothered to visit, he had been at one of his board retreats and... tangent. Going off on a tangent. Point of mentioning this moment in his life was to illustrate, illustrate what - being reborn. Right. Well, after he woke up, he understood that boarding school was the best thing for him after all, it was clear his parents felt they had put in enough time, and what did he really need them for anyway? Jarvis he would miss, and Boo, the family cat, who always slept at the end of his bed; he had considered smuggling Boo into his luggage, but he would get caught, he always got caught, and it wasn't fair to Boo, so after a couple of days in the hospital, he recovered at home for a few weeks, then was put on a train with a nod and a proper handshake from his father, and a tear-free hug from his mother.

Anyway.

The second time?

Easy, when he woke up in that cave in Afghanistan, to find his heart had basically been replaced by a giant electromagnet. How does surviving something like that not change a person? He had needed a reboot, of some sort, he acknowledged that, he just hadn't been expecting something quite so traumatic, and to find that the one person he had trusted more than anyone in his life had been responsible for setting him up? That he hadn't seen it coming, at all? He was reminded once again that he could only truly rely on himself, even Pepper didn't quite understand it, or him, it was too much for him to expect her to, and he knew one day she would eventually leave him like everyone else did, it was only a matter of time.

New York: the wormhole, and the fall that should had killed him followed shortly thereafter. Had killed him for that one long moment, until he had been roared back to life through nothing more than the pure rage of the Hulk; he and Banner had never talked about it, he had never known whether Bruce had made that decision somehow, or if the Hulk, on his own, had instinctively felt that Tony was worth saving. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know the answer, and he had days when he wished he had just not bothered.

And then, and then, and then...

Bringing him to now, the now he still wasn't sure was quite real, except his eyes were open, and the only pain he felt were the normal aches and pains he associated with existing in his nearly fifty year old body. For once, he didn't have to save the universe, or the world, or the kid who thought he could save the world, all he had to do was...

"Breathe, Tony. Breathe, and tell me you will marry me?" 

He looked up into brightest, warmest eyes and whispered, "yes, Stephen, I will marry you," and with those words was born again for the last time.


End file.
